This month’s content format to try are polls. I love any content format that can serve multiple purposes. In this case, depending on where you put a poll (your own website, social media), you can capture your audiences attention as well as learn something about them. Here are some tips for creating polls:
Choose a topic that your audience will want to give their opinion on. It could be fun or functional, but it needs to be something that people will actually want to answer.
Keep it short. Don’t include too many questions or too many responses. Polls should be quick and easy to understand.
Use visuals when possible. You may not be able to do this on social media, but on your owned properties (like your website), you can make it visually appealing.
Give them the responses. Most people will want to see how their response compares to other people. After they reply, make sure you give them the current results of the poll.
You may wonder how you can use content marketing – which is meant to be more informative than sales-focused – during the more sales-focused time of the year. In fact, the holidays are a great time to share content that helps people celebrate the season. And you don’t need to wait until December to start sharing holiday-themed informational content. People this time of year are stressed about getting ready for parties, buying gifts, being with family, the weather – all kinds of things. You can endear yourself to your audience by providing content that will help them ease their stress. This could include things such as:
Ways to organize a home get together
Lists of gift ideas
Techniques to create calm
Money saving tips
Ways to show gratitude
Now that you have some ideas to start your planning, here are some tips for your strategy:
Start planning now! Decide what kind of content you want to create around the holidays (e.g., recipes, gift guides, DIY projects), then brainstorm ideas.
Create a calendar of events to help you plan your content strategy. Space your content out and make sure that your content formats are appropriate for the channel you are using and the preferences of your audiences on those channels.
Use social media to spread the word about your content. Share links to your posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, LinkedIn, etc. You don’t have to share every post on every channel. The content should be appropriate for the channel.
Don’t forget to add a call to action at the end of each post. What do you want people to do after reading or watching what you have posted? Visit your website? Tell a friend? Your calls to action should be determined when you set your goals.
Make sure your web content is optimized for search engines. With Google’s new Helpful Content Update, they are putting more emphasis on content that is helpful for the people visiting your site. Write for humans, not robots.
Include images in your web content. Images make your blog posts more visually appealing and engaging. And be sure to include Alt Text on your images for accessibility compliance.
Write compelling headlines. Headlines are the first thing visitors read when they land on your page. If your headline isn’t compelling enough, readers may leave your site without getting the information you want to share.
What helpful content do you plan on sharing with your audience this holiday season? Leave a comment below or tag me on social media @hijinxmarketing with your answer.
*Note: the first draft of this article was created using Frase.io AI content generator. If you are interested in the new frontier of using AI for content generation, give it a try!
We tend to get stuck in the same routines, using the same tactics, formats, and channels. I am starting a series that will showcase examples of types of content that you might want to consider adding into your marketing mix.
This month, let’s focus on quizzes. They can be fun, educational, or functional. They also serve a dual purpose. Not only are they a good engagement tool, they provide you with information about your audience. Some examples of quizzes include:
Ask your audience to choose from a list of possible challenges to accomplishing a task.
Have your audience choose from 3 – 4 icons to identify their favorite item.
Take people through a personality quiz to determine which of your products would be best for them.
People love to show off their knowledge. Let them tell you how smart they are on a particular topic through a series of fun questions.
TIPS
Be clear that you are collecting their answers for marketing purposes.
Don’t have too many questions in your quiz. If it is too long, your audience will check out without completing it.
Make sure you have a call-to-action at the end of the quiz that takes your customer closer to a product purchase.
Provide people a way to share their results!
Check out these examples below 👇
Red Lobster created a quiz that encouraged users to discover their “Endless Shrimp flavor” and shared it on social media. This was visually appealing (and mouthwatering if you like shrimp) and fun for people to take.
People who are passionate about a topic usually want to show how much they know about that topic. The Chicago Bulls created a fun quiz where people could test their trivia knowledge about the team. The results were shared after answering each question and users could see if they were correct.
Beauty subscription brand Birchbox created a quiz where their audience could answer questions to find their makeup brand spirit animal. After the quiz was completed, Birchbox would recommend makeup for the user based on their answers.
